CHAPTER NINE

No matter what my brain screamed at me to do, my feet wouldn’t move. Within moments, EA officials would surround the place and haul me off to the precinct. They’d wake up my parents to come pick me up. Then, I’d be fitted with a permanent DOD watch so I could never sneak out again. I hadn’t even been legal 24 hours and was already in trouble. Was this why my future self warned me not to ever leave the walls of Brighton?

The blinding light grew brighter as the cop walked down the trail.

“Abby?” The holder of the flashlight said. “What are you doing down here?”

I blinked, surprised. “Landon?”

“Where’s Elle?” Landon swept the trees with his beam.

She peeked out from behind a stump, a sneer on her face. “Geez, Landon. What are you doing here?”

“My job,” he said indignantly. He flipped off his flashlight and grabbed ahold of our shoulders. “We need to go, now.”

“What’s the rush?” she asked casually.

Landon chuckled, but gripped harder. “Lucky for you two, I didn’t call for backup. But someone else could still be watching. Understood?”

“Ouch. Do you have to squeeze that hard?” Elle asked.

“Yes.”

He marched us both around the darkened edge of the field, across the street and up the steps to his condo. Once inside, he ripped off my black hat and frisked me. My cheeks heated as he ran his fingers thoroughly and slowly along my waistband and up my stomach. Little did he know about the paper gem hiding inside my bra.

“Is this really necessary?” Elle watched with her hand perched on her hip.

“Abby, sit.” He pointed to the couch, then patted down his sister with less detail. “What’s this?” He held the zombie gun he’d pulled from the back of her waistband between two fingers.

Elle smirked. “Protection.”

He pointed for her to sit next to me, then grabbed a chair from the kitchen and straddled it. He leaned forward against the chair back. He wasn’t wearing his DOD. “Now tell me what you two were doing by the wall tonight.”

Elle sighed, folding her arms over her chest. “Exploring.”

“Exploring?” He cocked his brow. “This makes two nights in a row that someone, without DOD watches on mind you, decided to visit that spot. So let’s try this again. What are you two up to?”

“I promise. It was nothing,” Elle said.

“And was it nothing when you sent Abby into my place today?”

Dread zinged into me. From the corner of my eye, I watched Elle’s mouth drop, then her glare accosted the side of my face.

“Because after last night, I was tasked to research video feeds to find out why someone would want to break the law to visit there,” he finished.

I gulped down my nervousness. I was on those feeds and so was Blue Eyes. We were going to be caught.

“What did you see?” Elle asked, her voice light. I couldn’t believe she continued on with her act of ignorance and innocence.

Landon’s accusing eyes zeroed in on me, filled with knowledge. He knew. He knew it all. The confession bubbled to my lips. I just wanted my conscience clean, to get this out in the open and be over with it already. “I didn’t—”

“Okay, you caught us,” Elle interrupted. “We saw the hole when Abby fell down the ravine during our game. There were bare footprints in the dirt, so… I just wanted to see a zombie first hand and they’re only out at night, so… Sorry.”

My gaze swung to her in shock. Why was she continuing on with this bogus story? He’d know she was lying after watching the feeds.

Landon’s posture relaxed. “Look. I get your obsession and need for danger, but you can’t be doing that, especially now that you’re legal. I don’t mind if you come over and check out the feeds here, but you can’t run around without your DOD on. If you get caught, there’s only so much I can do to protect you.”

“Pschtt, right.” She lounged into the couch cushions and kicked up her feet on the coffee table. “Keeping your enemies closer much?”

Landon leaned forward, eyes hard, and knocked her feet off the table. “I get your pain, Elle. It’s not like I wanted the option of kids taken from me either, but acquiring the antidote isn’t going to happen if I piss off the wrong people. Do you hear me?”

My breath stole in my throat. Was he sterilized, too? The need to strangle someone in the EA overwhelmed me.

Elle looked away and wiped her cheek with the back of her hand. “You could have told me.”

“And chance you’d stand up your meeting? Hardly.” He worked his jaw. “I’m on your side, remember that. But for now, for your own good, I’m monitoring you both. If you so much as take off your DOD once to even pee, I’ll be all over you. Got it?”

I swallowed and nodded. Visions of him being all over me—in a naughty way—spring-boarded into my brain, leaving a splash of goose bumps across my skin. He turned to me and smiled as if he knew the dirty thoughts I was thinking. My cheeks heated to a three-alarm fire.

Elle stood and saluted. “Got it, big brother. So I guess we’ll be going now that the lecture is over.”

Landon gave her a stern look before returning his chair to the kitchen table. Once he moved out of earshot, Elle leaned in and whispered, “Thank God you didn’t say anything. I deleted the feeds with you and zombie zone guy, and you’re welcome by the way. So we’re cool there, but a heads up that Landon actually saw you today would have been nice.”

“I know… I’m sorry,” I said as she stood. “I… was going to tell you earlier.”

“It’s fine. Let’s go.”

But the words it’s fine didn’t sit right with me. I wanted to shake Elle and remind her we were far from good. Plastered on an illegal slip of paper was my name with a request to meet a criminal in two days. Though I didn’t know how that would happen, especially now with Landon monitoring us, we’d treaded into dangerous territory, especially if the EA found the note. Forget being fitted with a permanent DOD, I’d be as good as dead.

Date: 2015-02-03; view: 595